Abstract

COSTA, Júlio Pinto da. The Obama reform and the USA health system. Arq Med [online]. 2013, vol.27, n.4, pp.158-167. ISSN 2183-2447.

Health systems are the result of political decisions made by governments, which influence the way how the care is provided, funded and organized. The model of the United States of America is usually considered liberal. The Obama administration introduced important changes, incorporating deeper social concerns, in particular concerning to the levels of universality, accessibility and regulation. However, the system kept some important characteristics of the anterior model: freedom of choice, private nature of the provision of care and the type of funding. Other important measures of the reform are: the reinforcement of primary health care; the improvement of the quality and efficiency; a larger preoccupation with the reduction of costs. This last objective is very important and it is still too early to draw any conclusion. Investigators and politicians are not unanimous about the success of this purpose. One of the most important problems of the USA health system was, until 2010, the observation that the most rich and powerful country, still lived with 40 million citizens without any protection in case of illness. The reform introduced by Obama’s administration, the high level of their technology and State of the art of medicine will improve, certainly, the health outcomes.

Keywords : Health system; reform; USA.

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